The Best of the Best: Part III

The Super Bowl

Longtime readers of MO will notice the absence of Chuck Graves from Part III of Best of the Best.

After he helped us pick the Yamaha YZF-R1 winner in Part I, he got sponsored to run a Yamaha Formula Extreme team using, you guessed it, a YZF-R1. As such, Chuck declined to vote in this test. (Since Part Two, Open Twins didn't have an R1, we allowed him to flog the twins a bit.)

However, when it came time to pick a winner between the R1 and the SPS, Chuck didn't stay idle, he had other plans.

While Roland Sands, Editor Plummer, and the rest headed out on the track without Chuckie, he rolled out his secret weapon: A fully-prepared, AMA Formula Extreme Graves Motorsports Yamaha R1. In racing there's something known as a "B" bike.

On the chance that an engine blows up or your rider wads (always a possibility), you need a backup. Chuck brought his fire-breathing, YZF-R1 back-up bike to play on the track.

At the time of this testing (August, 1998), the AMA season was in full swing, so we didn't get a change to throw a leg over the "A" bike.

It wasn't worth the risk for Graves, which was a shame and a blow to our collective "we don't crash" egos, but Chuck another reason for bringing the backup bike: